Jahrra gratefully welcomed the winter break when it finally came, thrilled to have a long vacation away from the tension at school. She was able to enjoy her very first birthday party with her two best friends, and Gieaun and Scede were even allowed to stay the night.
“I can’t believe she is already seven years old,” Lynhi commented to Hroombra as they watched the three companions chase each other around the orchard pretending to hunt the wild beasts of the forest. “It seems just yesterday she was a baby.”
“It’s amazing how quickly the time goes by,” Hroombra agreed solemnly. He’d dropped by for the day to wish Jahrra a happy birthday and to tell her a special birthday tale, one about unicorns.
Like all good things, however, the much appreciated time away from school eventually came to an end. The first several days back at the schoolhouse went well but it wasn’t long before the twins were back into the habit of tormenting Jahrra.
“Nesnan girl,” Ellysian chirped the second week back, “we hear that you live in a house that’s as small as a dwarf’s basement.”
They’d dropped the phrase “Dragon Dung Dweebs” and were singling Jahrra out by simply referring to her as the ‘Nesnan’, ignoring Gieaun and Scede completely. Jahrra couldn’t possibly imagine why two seven year olds, who should be more concerned with playing tag and hide-and-go-seek, would put so much effort into tormenting someone else. Her mother and father and Hroombra had always said that all the peoples of Oescienne were equal, but for some reason the twins didn’t think so.
When the name calling started to wear off they moved on to more cruel tactics. For instance, they still found it shocking that Jahrra was being tutored by a dragon and didn’t hesitate to make their disapproval known, in less than kind terms of course.
One morning, Jahrra was telling Gieaun and Scede about her lesson with Hroombra the weekend before.
“Have you ever heard of semequins!” she breathed excitedly, thinking she was out of earshot of the evil twins. “Master Hroombra told me all about them. They’re the most amazing creatures! He told me that they’re horses that have a unicorn mother or father!”
“You mean you didn’t know about semequins?”
To Jahrra’s great annoyance, Eydeth had heard her. “How dumb can you be!” he laughed. “My father owns over a hundred of them, the best in the land!”
Gieaun and Scede gave Eydeth an annoyed look and swiftly made efforts to ignore him, but it was what he said next that captured their attention. He was irritated that his initial insult missed its target, so he tried a different tactic.
“Don’t you dummies know that dragons are evil creatures that steal treasure and set whole towns on fire!”
Many of the other girls and boys who had at first ignored Eydeth’s usual tirade gasped at this remark and stepped away from Jahrra as if she were sick with the plague. Jahrra tried to remain cool and tried desperately to think of a good retort, but all she could do was hang her head low and walk away with her two friends. She tried so hard to enjoy school but the silence one day and laughter the next truly disheartened her.
A few weeks later Ellysian made another nasty comment about Nesnans right in front of Jahrra, but this time she reacted. Just as Ellysian finished telling a group of girls how the Nesnan people never did anything worth praising, Jahrra shouted back without thinking, “I don’t care what you say! Master Hroombra told me that we’re all the same!”
Oh yes, that showed them, Jahrra thought to herself bitterly as the laughter around her strengthened. She flushed terribly as she once again became a spectacle.
Eydeth had been right across the yard and quickly joined in the foray.
“All the same?” he squeaked with delight. “You? The same as us? That dragon isn’t only horrible, he’s stupid too!” The evil boy could barely hold back his laughter.
Jahrra just stood there, frozen in frustration and anger as the entire class laughed at her.
“Stop it!” Gieaun shouted, seething with rage. “Master Hroombra isn’t horrible or stupid! You’re all just too afraid of Eydeth’s lies to believe anything else!”
The laughter, if at all possible, grew louder. Jahrra felt like vapor being spread thin throughout the air around her. Gieaun quailed in shame. Almost every last person in the class was now surrounding Jahrra and Gieaun, pointing and making faces.
“Dragon Dung Dweebs! Dragon Dung Dweebs!” they chanted again and again, resurrecting the old phrase once more. Eydeth and Ellysian stood back and watched with malevolent grins of satisfaction on their smug faces.
Then, without warning, Scede did something no one was expecting. He’d been sitting on the great granite boulder beneath the oak tree when all of this had started. He’d watched helplessly as Jahrra walked over to defend herself and remained seated in fear as his sister joined her. But as the cacophony unfolded before him, his fear slowly turned to rage and he just couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Stop it! All of you stop it right now!” he screamed as he jumped off the stone slab, looking as dangerous as an angry wasp.
Scede’s sudden outburst caught everyone off guard and the laughing ceased instantly.
“Master Hroombra is much smarter than any of you, and he’s nicer too! We know you don’t like us or him, and we don’t care. So why don’t you just leave us alone! And you had better watch out,” he pointed a shaking finger at Ellysian, “or you’ll end up getting a mud bath just like your brother!”
Scede was breathing hard and his teeth and fists were clenched. Even Gieaun and Jahrra backed away, slightly afraid he might explode. Ellysian had turned white and the smile on Eydeth’s face became a hard frown as he recalled the memory of falling into the mud.
Scede darted his eyes around, trying hard to think of something else to say, but nothing came to mind. Every child in the schoolyard, oldest to youngest, stood still as if waiting for him to strike at them like a snake.
When he finally spoke again everyone cringed, but the only words he could muster were, “Why don’t you all go wait for your stupid wagons over there!”
He pointed furiously towards the front of the schoolhouse and surprisingly, everyone obeyed.
“Yeah, we will, and you can go wait for your hay cart over there,” Ellysian said, sounding like a deflated balloon as she and her brother turned and headed towards the front of the yard.
Gieaun, Scede and Jahrra slowly walked back to their oak tree, the two girls keeping their distance. Like the victims of a massive earthquake, they waited for Scede’s aftershocks but they never came. They sat a long time, watching as all of their classmates quietly climbed into their respective carriages or rode off on their own horses they kept in the school stables.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, the mail cart came creaking up the path. Gieaun, Jahrra and Scede climbed up next to Mr. Dharedth as if under a spell, content with riding all the way home in complete silence. The two girls had no idea what to say to Scede, but finally Dharedth, sensing the strange tension surrounding the three friends, spoke up, “What seems to be the problem? Ever since I started taking you to and from school eight months ago, you always talked up a storm on the way back. Why are you all so silent?”
Scede was the one to answer, his voice strangely calm, “The other children were saying some mean things about Master Hroombra and Jahrra, so I yelled at them.”
“Is that all? Well, ‘tis about time those ruffians get told a thing or two. Don’ worry,” Dharedth said seeing the look of dread on the children’s faces. “I won’ tell anyone you did it.”